COF 4: The Abject Throne

8 | Promise (I)

His eyes made out a face out of the hazy veil coating his perception. Numbness gripped his body but he had a vague feeling that he was sprawled across a hard, wooden floor and not the ocean bed. His chest heaved with every breath he took, leaving his throat cry and scratchy.

The face cleared. He took in her round face, her pointy ears, her lips that he once kissed on a temple courtyard overlooking the foggy mountains. Her dark brown eyes were bloodshot. Still, she was smiling. At him. Why?

"Welcome back, June," Xanthy's voice cracked as her eyes shone.

June. So that's his name. How come he had forgotten it? Where were they? Why was he on the floor? More importantly, why was Xanthy crying?

"Can you get up?" the other voice said. Nyxis.

June dragged his body out of its resting position. He came as close as his back rising a few inches off the floor when a wave of nausea crashed into his senses. He reeled back. An arm reached out and soon, he found his head cradled close to Xanthy's shoulder.

His breath hitched. Well, at least, he's now sitting up.

June heard Nyxis sigh. Why? He wanted to ask but he couldn't even open his mouth. Not when his head felt like it was being split open into two halves. His breathing was an erratic mess while his chest felt like a graspel was sitting on it. He was sore all over.

A rough, long-sleeved tunic covered his arms and a pair of trousers, his legs. His feet were bare. Where were his boots? Moreover, where was he at the moment?

"Well, at least he could understand us," Nyxis crouched next to Xanthy. What a sad attempt to brighten the mood. June would've cracked a joke or two if only he wasn't feeling like he had just been mauled by a pack of raslionis.

Xanthy curled the fist buried in his hair. June's face was disturbingly pressed to her chest which brought about another bout of dizziness. What happened? Why was he still alive?

"Get him up the bed, for Pidmena's sake," Nyxis sighed. The fact that he's using the death goddess's name to curse wasn't a good sign. Then again, how was any of this a good sign?

Xanthy grunted as she swung June's arm around her shoulders and dragged him towards a four-legged bed with a mattress and an abundance of silk pillows. Where did they get this luxury to rent a room? What happened to Lanteglos?

Xanthy deposited June's limp body into the bed like he was a sack of flour. She made him lean against a towering pile of pillows to prop him up. This gave him a perfect view of the room.

Four walls. A single window showed him a mass of forest complete with the undergrowth, colorful flowers and plants, and an occasional furry critter passing by. Bird song twittered beyond the wooden planks composing the ceiling.

Xanthy pulled a stool from a small table beside June's bed and perched on it. A pitcher and a lone glass of water looked like treasure from their place atop the table. Nyxis strode towards the bed and braced a hand on the corner of the headboard, giving June enough view of the assortment of vials, dried leaves, and strange devices he'd rather not know the use of scattered on a long table behind the human.

His gaze landed on the floor and well...he could only guess that he did that wonderful blood-and-vomit painting on it. June took a breath and blinked. He was...breathing normally. Wow. Whatever Nyxis flushed down June's throat worked like magic.

In fact, it was better than magic.

"In case you are wondering about what happened to Lanteglos, we managed to slip past the Unities," Nyxis said. "Then, we ended up in the Palace and now we are here."